ALMA’S DREAMS (ARE DEFAULT)
An eldritch-horror themed… thriller I suppose, this series has both an interesting setting and a fairly varied cast of layered characters. While the protagonist is a bit impulsive, her actions come across naturally rather than feeling forced or exaggerated.
THE MOTHER OF MONSTERS
An overpowered-protagonist isekai with some small romance elements and eventual kingdom-building aspects, this story takes an unusual development path. It’s not as cut and dried as simply going from hero to villain, as the MC occupies a sort of middle-ground between the two concepts, but more a subtle shift across the alignment axis.
Misadventures Incorporated
I ended up greatly enjoying the rewritten first book of the series, only to be crushingly disappointed by the original second book. Turns out the rewrite removed quite a few massively annoying elements which play large parts in the later event development. I’m also not really a fan of the fox-fairy and it seems like she becomes a major character.
HEARTTHROB
A romance thriller taking place in a futuristic dystopia, this series has quite a few things going for it in the setting and character departments with both feeling well developed and ‘real’. Unfortunately (for me), the level of victimization is a bit too high for my taste.
The Rise of Chaos <genesis>
Notable for being structured like a light novel, with occasional images appearing mid-chapter, the first book of this series is quite well done. Really, the only thing I can complain about is how it’s never explained why the protagonist awkwardly ignores her friend’s romantic advances despite being equally attracted. The second book though… the second book quickly takes all the goodwill of the first and leaves it dead in a ditch by effectively ret-conning the first’s conclusion and drastically changing the series genre.
Daughter of Death
Unusual for having an unequivocally villainous protagonist, this series starts off well enough only to end up exceptionally contrived following the second meeting with the king. The level of plot armor just blasts through the roof and it becomes prohibitively difficult to justify the event developments.
Mistress Of The Evil Forest
In retrospect, this comes across like an Anime-ified Mother of Monsters. The tropes were thick enough that I couldn’t get beyond the first chapter.
Ethereal Ascendance
This reads like an overly-literal fan translation of a Japanese light novel.
Exiled Realm
A work by the same author as Father of Monstrosity (focused more on psychological horror than physical horror), I tried pretty hard to like this series and in fact managed to make it to the second part of the second arc… where I had to give up when it spontaneously turned into a Mushishi fanfic. Other potential issues are the whole amnesia focus (though done differently here, it’s certainly not a popular trope), an overabundance of commas, and a curious absence of stats despite taking place in a game world.
